Bespoked Bristol handmade bike show to be scaled down

Last month we brought you exciting news about Bespoked Bristol, a “Handmade and Boutique” bike show that was due to take place at Brunel’s Passenger Shed in the city next April.

While the idea of the exhibition has been met with enthusiasm from potential exhibitors, not enough of them were able to put down deposits to guarantee filling the proposed venue.

“We had a lot of interest in the event but with only 20 exhibitors prepared to commit, we have decided to scale things down,” said organiser Phil Taylor. “The feedback we had was very positive but also indicated that the exhibition stands were going to be too expensive so we are now looking for a smaller venue to keep costs down.”

Road.cc understands that the cost of hiring the Brunel Passenger Shed venue would have been £10,000 for the four-day event.

“We wanted to keep the focus on the small, independent UK frame-builder and similar businesses. Our idea is to support them, to give them a platform and an outlet for their products.”

However, Phil also told us that the exhibition will hopefully be much more than simply a shop window for frame-builders, wheel-builders and other component and accessory makers.

“We see the event as being more participative, with opportunities for skills- demonstrations, talks and lectures for anyone interested in setting up their own independent bike business,” he said.

While Phil maintains that the ethos of the event is to help small independent operations, he concedes that if a big bike retailer wanted to come on board and buy exhibition space it would be hard to turn them away.

Said Phil: “If that happened then it would allow us to subsidise the stands of smaller businesses and spend more on marketing to promote the show.”

We'll keep you updated with developments on this story as we get them.